China Everbright Securities reports August losses of $85 million from trading scandal

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

A department office of Everbright Securities is pictured in Beijing, August 16, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Lee

BEIJING (Reuters) - China Everbright Securities (601788.SS) incurred net losses of 523.1 million yuan ($85.47 million) in August as a result of a glitch in its trading system that prompted record fines from the regulators, the brokerage said in a notice posted late on Friday.

Everbright said its figures were based on preliminary data

The firm had already been fined the same amount by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) last week after being charged with insider trading and other irregularities arising from a glitch in the brokerage’s computer system in mid-August.

The glitch caused an unintended placement of buy orders worth 68.6 billion yuan on August 16, leading to a massive but short-lived jump in the Shanghai Composite Index.

Everbright managers moved to offset the impact of the error by taking huge short positions in index futures and exchange-traded funds before disclosing details of the trading glitch, allowing them to hedge losses from bad trades, but investors following the firm’s lead ended up taking substantial losses.

CSRC also barred Everbright Securities’ former president from the industry for life, and said that individual retail investors would be permitted to seek compensation from the brokerage for any losses they incurred.

CSRC said on Friday it will unveil new rules to tighten oversight of stock and futures dealings, in a response to the scandal.

The new rules will clearly define abnormal dealings in stocks and futures, improve trading systems and tighten internal risk controls, a spokesman for CSRC told reporters.